Knows What She Wants to Be
by Gabi94
Summary: Gabriella's the new transfer student, scared of being the freaky genius girl again. Troy Bolton's the guy she meets and falls for. He's also her teacher.
1. Chapter 1

Gabriella bit her lip as she power walked through the unfamiliar school with her mom and the principal. They were talking, but she couldn't really hear anything they were saying. The only thing she could think about was how she had just met a kinda-cute boy (alright, _very _cute boy), Jesse, at her old school, and even though his group of friends didn't really mix with hers, he sat with her and her friends at lunch, and even though she was ridiculously smart and often called a know-it-all, he seemed to want to take her out anyways, and as soon as she thought something exciting might happen for once in her life, her mom's company had transferred them to Albuquerque with two days notice, and with all the packing and crying and calling relatives, she hadn't been able to go see "The Holiday" with Jesse, and now she was going to be the freaky genius girl again, just when she thought she might finally break free from that label.

Her mom told her, for the billionth time, to "Just Be Gabriella", but that hadn't got her anywhere. She had Just Been Gabriella at all her previous schools, and at all her previous schools, she had gained a reputation as freakishly brilliant. Kids she didn't know would ask her for help in classes she didn't take, and although she'd courteously show them how to do their work, they pointed and whispered to their friends about her as soon as they understood. She was sick of being Gabriella, because being Gabriella meant being the school's freaky genius girl.

As her mom kissed the top of her head, she made herself a promise. _I'm going to be different this time. I _promise_ I'm going to be different this time._

Sliding into her third period advanced trigonometry seat, the first thing she noticed was her teacher's hair. It was brown and shaggy, and reminded her of Jesse's. He was turned away from the class, writing the date on the board, and a few strands were out of place. Gabriella wanted to stand up and fix them. _Um, not a good first impression, _she thought to herself. Still, resisting that urge turned out to be much harder than she expected.

She noticed everyone else getting out their notebooks, and she inwardly groaned. She only had a binder for this class. This was one of the things she hated about transferring in the middle of the year; not only were you majorly behind in all the schoolwork, but you also didn't understand exactly how this particular classroom worked, and you didn't have the advantage the rest of your classmates did of being clueless together in September. You had to be clueless alone, and ask your teacher where the hall pass was alone, and you had to figure out how strictly teachers enforced tardy rules alone (not that that had ever been a problem for Gabriella), and you had to see if eating was permitted in class through trial and error, rather than the teachers words on the subject on the first day of school. It drove her crazy.

She was busy deciding whether to be angry with her mom or her mom's company, and she had just chosen the latter when her teacher turned around.

_Wow. _

Firstly, he was young, he couldn't be more than five years older than her, and secondly, he had incredible eyes.

They were an astounding shade of blue, a deep, yet at the same time, light, blue. She had never seen anyone with eyes that color, yet here he was. She had thought Jesse's eyes were amazing, but they were nothing, _nothing_, like this.

"Questions on the homework from break?" His voice shattered her thoughts, but not because it was rough or abrupt, but because it was almost as incredible as his eyes. She shook her head and laughed at herself. _You're being ridiculous, Gabi!_

She sat sheepishly in her desk, waiting for him to notice her and tell her what was going on while the rest of the class shouted out numbers and talked with their friends. She didn't have long to wait. As soon as he had finished writing all the numbers of problems on the board, he sat down at the computer to do his attendance, then immediately stood up again.

"Montez? Do we have a Gabriella Montez here?"

Gabriella apprehensively raised her hand.

"Hello, Ms. Montez. How are you?" He asked as he walked over and bent down so he was at her level.

"Good." She croaked. _Goddamn, Gabi. You couldn't have wet your throat?_

"Well, I hope you'll have a great first day here at East High. I'm Mr. Bolton, and if you could briefly see me after school to go over what we've done first semester, that'd be great." He smiled at her, a smile that reached his eyes. They were almost hypnotizing, and Gabi almost shook herself. She stopped herself last minute; he didn't need to know the momentary trance he'd put her in.

He straightened up and addressed the class.

"Class, this is Gabriella Montez. I'd like for you to make her feel welcome here." He motioned for her to turn around, so she did and gave the class a tentative smile.

One of the boys in the back of the classroom wolf-whistled, and she quickly turned back to the front of the classroom.

Yeah, she was a little cute, but once guys realized that she didn't put out, and then once they realized that she was a nerdy bookworm, that was the end of the admiring whistles.

_No, no, don't think like that. It's not going to be like that this time. You're not going to be a freaky genius girl._

She was still going to get good grades and save herself for marriage, of course, but she was going to have a little more fun, be a little less uptight, and hopefully, a little more boys would look at her.

As the class continued, Gabriella just awkwardly sat there and looked at Mr. Bolton. She hadn't done the homework, clearly, so she just watched him and tried to make it seem like it was just about the lesson. But, God, was he beautiful.


	2. Chapter 2

At the end of the day, she found herself briskly walking to Mr. Bolton's classroom, which irritated her. This was how she used to walk at all her other schools, this was the reason for the snickers she sometimes heard in the halls, this was the walk of a girl anxious to get to class. She slowed down, and immediately felt better.

He was straightening some papers on his desk when she entered his classroom in her now leisurely stroll. He turned when he heard her, and smiled an incredible smile. She groaned inwardly; why did this school district have to hire such attractive teachers?

"Here, sit down," he said, pulling a chair to the other side of his desk.

"Thanks," she smiled, and sat down.

She wanted to look down at his desk, but he hadn't pulled any new papers out, so she had to look him in the eyes. Which was really derailing her thoughts. His eyes now looked almost green, and they were so beautiful she really would have been fine with just staring at them for the next hour. His hair swooped over his forehead, and really, what was he thinking, wearing his hair in such a youthful style when he knew he was a teacher? Gabrielle had no doubt that he knew he was hot, he had probably had tons of girls falling all over him in high school, couldn't he guess that his students were now going to do the same? The least he could do was try to make himself less attractive, so that they wouldn't make fools of themselves.

_Or maybe that's just me,_ Gabriella thought to herself. _Maybe it's just me, and everyone else has friends and boyfriends and can just appreciate the fact that he's hot without obsessing over him._

Because she had been obsessing over him. She'd met a girl named Taylor who'd invited her to sit with her for lunch, but Gabi had mainly stayed quiet and just thought about Mr. Bolton. There were too many new people here, and she was shy as it was, so she just kept to herself the rest of the day. There had been a girl, Sharpay, who'd made conversation during chemistry, but her sweetness seemed fake and Gabriella couldn't help feeling that Sharpay was actually kind of bitchy. It was easier to just ignore the other students and focus on the coursework. And Mr. Bolton.

"So," he started. Gabi's eyes darted from his eyes to his lips, lest he think she was staring too much. That was a mistake though, because his lips were also fairly attractive, especially when he started talking. "We've actually just started derivatives, I thought I could squeeze more in before break, but it's going kind of slow." He laughed, and Gabi belatedly laughed a bit too, even though she didn't know what was funny. She'd heard the words, but had been too focused on his lips, her mind now raced to process them before he needed a response from her. "I thought we'd cover more, but we really just started, and then with break, I bet most everyone's forgot everything. At least that's the impression I got today during class." Gabi wasn't sure if that was a joke, but she laughed anyways. He looked surprised for a split second, then smiled as well. He glanced down, then continued. "So, I think we'll just review tomorrow, basically start over, so you should be fine. Or did you guys start derivatives?"

They hadn't, but Gabi had used the break to read ahead in her math book. She wasn't about to admit to that, though. Her break had been boring, spent at some ski lodge. She wasn't much of a skier, so she'd spent the whole break reading, her math book and Hamlet (which she thought was actually not that good), a book on Egyptian mythology, and _Eragon_ (which she had actually really liked, though she wasn't about to admit that either).

"No, we didn't, but I'm sure I'll be fine if we go over them tomorrow."

"Are you sure?" He asked. "Derivatives are kind of a tricky concept."

_I know_, she thought, _I spent about 5 hours puzzling them out without the help of a teacher_. "I think I'll be fine. But if not, I'll come to you for help tomorrow after school."

He smiled at her. "You're the kind of student I like," he said. "Determined, but still not afraid to ask for help. Some of these kids…" he trailed off. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow in class then."

"Yup, see you then!" She said as she grabbed her bag and started toward the classroom door.

"Oh, wait," he called behind her. The overactive part of her imagination made her think that maybe he was going to call out to her, grab her, and kiss her, even though she'd given him absolutely no signs that she was interested.

"Here, have my e-mail address," he was scribbling it down on a loose piece of paper. "District policy," he said, handing her the paper. "E-mail if you have any questions." She looked at the paper. _Bolton_T._

"What's the T for?" she asked, not quite innocent, but far from flirtatious. She didn't want to make a fool out of herself.

He looked at her for a long moment. It was only now that she was standing that she noticed the butterflies in her stomach. "Troy."

"I like that name." She said, and then realized that was a really weird thing to say to a teacher. She almost made up some story about having a dog named Troy, or a neighbors dog named Troy, or something to excuse it, but then she mentally shrugged. This was probably far from the weirdest comment he'd ever received, so if she just acted like it was no big deal, he'd probably just ignore it. To her surprise, he did the opposite and laughed.

"Thanks. I don't know what my parents were thinking, it's not really a common name for them."

She was about to ask what he meant, maybe ask where he grew up, but then he said, "Well, see you tomorrow Gabriella." She nodded, then stepped out of the classroom.

Even once in the hallway, she still felt tingly and excited. _Does being in the same room with him really have this much of an effect on me?_ She wondered. Regardless of the answer, she couldn't stop herself from smiling the whole drive home.

When she got home, her mom intercepted her. "How was school?" she asked.

"It was alright," Gabi replied distractedly. She wanted to go upstairs and review derivatives some more so she'd be sure not to embarrass herself tomorrow. _Freaky genius girl_, she thought to herself. It'd be different, though. She wouldn't flaunt her knowledge or be a know-it-all. She wouldn't answer every question, she just…just wanted to impress him. Maybe show him that she wasn't like the other students, so that he'd stop thinking of her as just a student? And then, _maybe_, he'd be more open to the idea of something, anything, between them? _No, he probably sees me as a child. _She thought to herself.

"Why just alright?" her mom asked jokingly. "Why not…AWESOME?!"

This was a game they'd used to play, but her mom had already soured her mood after how happy she felt with Mr. Bolton.

"Because it's a new school, mom." She said, her voice sharper than she'd intended. "Because your company transferred you, and now I don't know anyone and am completely out of my element, so I'm sorry that my first day wasn't as perfect as you'd like for it to be." Her mom looked stricken. "Gabi, I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"

"It's fine," she said, then went upstairs. Two minutes she came back down, hugged her mom, and said, "_I'm_ sorry. You didn't want the company to transfer you, and it's not fair for me to get angry with you. I'm really sorry."

Her mom kissed her forehead and whispered, "It's nothing, Gabi."

After a few more moments in their embrace, Gabriella pulled away. "I have to go study now. Are you gonna need help with dinner?"

"No, I think I've got it today," her mom smiled, fondness in her eyes. "That's my girl, always so helpful, always so mature…" she trailed off as she turned away into the kitchen. Gabi's heart rose at the word _mature_.

_That's what I have to keep striving for_. She thought. _That's what will make him see that this could be alright._ She laughed at herself, sure that she was being ridiculous. _Nothing's gonna happen._ She told herself. _He gets this all the time from students, he was just being friendly with you, and nothing's actually gonna happen. _Even so, once she got to her room, she got straight to work on her derivatives. _Might as well impress him_, she thought.


End file.
